What an episode. While last week's 'The Man Behind the Curtain' was more of a transitional episode, 'Watching the Detectives' wastes no time in getting started with a brutally abrupt death and continuing with Raylan Givens finding himself in a real pickle as the local police department and the FBI launch investigations into him.

When Quarles (Neal McDonough) and Duffy (Jere Burns) previously approached Gary (William Ragsdale), it was unclear what their motivations were. We got our answer literally in the first few minutes - Quarles drives Gary to the front of his ex-wife Winona's house and shoots him coldly in the chest.

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It was shocking, not only because it happened so early but because it's a fate that Gary - no matter what your feelings are towards him - didn't deserve. RIP Gary.

Framing Raylan for Gary's murder is all part of Quarles's plan to get rid of him. Clearly feeling threatened by the marshal, he also plants the idea to the FBI that Raylan may be a dirty cop and working with Boyd Crowder. Raylan spends pretty much the entire episode fighting on two fronts.

Fortunately, Art, Tim and Winona all contribute in helping him get out of trouble in various ways. As much as Raylan likes to be the badass and do things his way, it was awesome to see that people genuinely have his back - from Art getting the FBI to drop its investigation to Winona finding the murder weapon and giving it to Raylan.

Tim was perhaps the most surprising. He was visibly frustrated with how he was being treated by Raylan last week, and I pondered in the recap whether that will cost Raylan at some point in later episodes. If the elevator scene was any evidence, it looks like Tim is loyal and will stand by Raylan as he lets Raylan get away from the clutches of the police and FBI to sort out the framing himself.

Another thing that worked wonderfully was the several small callbacks that reward longtime viewers with a sense of continuity in the Justified world.

The return of David Vasquez (Rick Gomez) as well as a brief appearance from Stephen Root, the hitmen Gary hired last season, the Bennetts, the shootout in the first season finale - on a show where every action may very well have a consequence (Gary opted not to flee the country despite Raylan's advice and now he lies six feet under), the unfolding events are given considerably more weight than your average 'character gets framed' episode on network procedurals.

So Quarles has been thwarted and is growing more desperate by the minute, and even resorts to taking an Oxy pill. We also see the cold mobster further humanised by him receiving a phone call from home - with the caller ID image of his wife and two kids. He ignores it, but looks frustrated and emotional in equal measures.

It's such an interesting development - when we were first introduced to him at the beginning of the season, he seemed in control and almost untouchable. Now, he's turning into a wreck but surely if anything, the desperation will make him even more dangerous.

Neal McDonough and Mykelti Williamson finally get a couple of scenes together as Quarles turns to Limehouse for help. Limehouse seems to be only interested in encouraging the war between Quarles and Boyd Crowder, but we'll have to wait to see how this all pans out.

Bullet Points
• Tanner (Brendan McCarthy)'s demise didn't actually happen this week, foiling my prediction. He's got to be a dead man walking, though.
• Sheriff Napier (David Andrews) worked with Tanner to fake the car bombing and pin it on Boyd. Crafty, but how's Boyd going to get out of being wrongfully held?
• Raylan sneaking out of the building was pretty tense - thankfully, he didn't get caught. Also, the spare car key behind the fuel cap was pretty clever.
• Going back to how I was saying every action could have a consequence, how brilliant was it of Quarles to use that bullet Raylan threw at Duffy in episode 3 to frame him?
• We saw more sleeve gun action when Quarles briefly pointed it at Sammy Tonin (Max Perlich) - but no trigger pull this time.
• Art to Raylan: "Having you in the office is going to give me a stroke."